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The last time I saw her was in Rome. It had been at the exercise yard at Calliopus' barracks on the Portuensis Road. She had been arguing then too-with a handsome young stud I had assumed must be her lover: but Ha
I turned to the slave. “The nephew Myrrha mentioned-does he have a name?”
“It's Iddibal,” he told me, while the woman I had once refused to believe could be Iddibal's auntie looked on and smiled.
“And he's Ha
“Yes of course.”
I said that since his father had done me so many kindnesses, I would love to meet Ha
52
MYRRHA's SHIP WAS an extremely large, rather elderly transport that we learned had been used in the past for taking beasts to Rome. Like her brother, and sometimes in partnership with him, she engaged in the export of animals for the amphitheater-though according to her she herself was a shy provincial who never left Sabratha. Because of the language barrier, conversations with her were rare, but once when we happened to have the interpreter to hand I asked, “The arena's a family occupation? Does your nephew also help Ha
Yes, came the reply. Iddibal was in his twenties, a great hunter, and he relished the family business.
“No plans to send him to be polished up in Rome then?”
No, lied Auntie Myrrha blithely; Iddibal was a homeboy. We all smiled and said how wonderful it was, in our restless age, when young men were satisfied with their heritage.
Everything was extremely friendly, though I feared that would not last. Once we reached Lepcis and Myrrha started talking to Ha
I decided to relax while we were aboard the aunt's ship. Once we disembarked I would be my own man again. When we were leaving Sabratha I had made Famia promise that as soon as he was tired of horse buying he would come back to Lepcis and pick us up. Even if he failed to show, when I had sorted out the business Scilla wanted, Helena and I could pay for our own passage home.
Sorting out the business for Scilla had suddenly acquired a new dimension. Allowance was needed for Ha
I assumed that Calliopus had never known that Iddibal was a rival's son. Iddibal would never have left the barracks alive otherwise. In retrospect, it looked to me as if the young man might have been sent to Rome by his family specifically to foment a war between Calliopus and Saturninus. Public strife between those two would make them look unsound; when tenders were invited for the new amphitheater, Ha
Sending in his son to cause provocation would have been a good ploy on Ha
Iddibal could simply have run away. With outside help, it could have been arranged. Anacrites and I had known that his aunt had had money with her in Rome, and at least one servant (her present interpreter, I reckoned), plus a very fast ship waiting on the coast. But since Iddibal had become a gladiator, he was also a slave. That was a legal condition into which he could volunteer to put himself-but from which he could not then choose to withdraw. Only Calliopus could free him. If he ran off, Iddibal would be an outlaw for life.
His aunt must have been a stranger to Calliopus (well, she had told me she was a home-bird), whereas Ha
I was in no doubt now that Ha
That made me determined to interview young Iddibal.
53
FOR THE SAFETY of my family, I decided that as soon as possible I must shed Myrrha and distance myself from Ha
This was a bonus, offering me a chance to see Calliopus. I set off hotfoot into town and after hours of searching found his house, only to learn he too was away from home. Tripolitanian beast exporters seemed to spend a great deal of time on the hoof.
“A Roman took the master up coast on business,” said a slave.
“Is the mistress here? Her name's Artemisia, isn't it?”
“She went with him.”
“Where have they gone?”
“Lepcis.”
Brilliant. Scilla was paying me to fix meetings for her with both Calliopus and Saturninus. We had expected they would have to be tackled individually-but Calliopus had preempted me of his own accord. If he was in Lepcis we could deal with both at once. If only all jobs were this easy. (On the other hand, if Scilla ran into them both in Lepcis before I arrived there, it struck me I might lose my fee.)
“Who was this man your master went with?”
“Don't know.”
“He must have had a name?”
“Romanus.”
Right. I was none the wiser, and irritated as well now.
“What did he say?”
“My master's old partner is to appear in court on a charge; my master has to give evidence.”
This sounded suspiciously close to what I was supposed to arrange myself. The mad thought crossed my mind that “Romanus' could be Scilla herself in masculine disguise. She had the spirit-but of course, she liked to claim she was respectable. “What, is Calliopus on a charge too?”
“Just a witness.” That could be a ruse to get him there.
“For or against?”
The slave looked disgusted. “Against, man! They hate each other. My master would never have gone otherwise.”
What a wonderful scenario. If I had wanted a way to set the two men up, this was the perfect scheme; tell Calliopus he could help prosecute Saturninus. I wished I had thought of it.